James Harris (The Dæmon Lover) (Child 243D)

‘O whare hae ye been, my dearest dear,
These seven lang years and more?’
‘O I am come to seek my former vows,
That ye promisd me before.’

‘Awa wi your former vows,’ she says,
‘Or else ye will breed strife;
Awa wi your former vows,’ she says,
‘For I’m become a wife.

‘I am married to a ship-carpenter,
A ship-carpenter he’s bound;
I wadna he kend my mind this nicht
For twice five hundred pound.’

She has put her foot on gude ship-board,
And on ship-board she’s gane,
And the veil that hung oure her face
Was a’ wi gowd begane.

She had na sailed a league, a league,
A league but barely twa,
Till she did mind on the husband she left,
And her wee young son alsua.

‘O haud your tongue, my dearest dear,
Let all your follies abee;
I’ll show whare the white lillies grow,
On the banks of Italie.’

She had na sailed a league, a league,
A league but barely three,
Till grim, grim grew his countenance,
And gurly grew the sea.

‘O haud your tongue, my dearest dear,
Let all your follies abee;
I’ll show whare the white lillies grow,
In the bottom of the sea.’

He’s tane her by the milk-white hand,
And he’s thrown her in the main;
And full five-and-twenty hundred ships
Perishd all on the coast of Spain.